ROME (Reuters) - Taxes on energy in Italy have fallen by
almost a quarter in the last decade while greenhouse gas
emissions have soared, environmental group Legambiente said on
Friday, calling for greater action against climate change.

In its annual report on the state of the environment,
Italy's leading green group said successive Italian governments
had failed to discourage growing energy consumption or
encourage renewable power such as wind and solar.

Italy's emissions of greenhouse gas -- the main one being
carbon dioxide from energy use -- rose 12.1 percent between
1990 and 2005, whereas Italy has to reduce them by 6.5 percent
over the 2008-2012 period under the Kyoto Protocol.

The report showed that while countries like Britain and
Germany had increased energy tax and reduced emissions, Italian
energy taxes, which were the highest in western Europe in 1995,
had fallen 24 percent 10 years later.

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"There is a political backwardness in Italy," said Vittorio
Cogliati Dezza, president of Legambiente. "It has politicians
who don't know how to develop the economy. It's stuck in the
model of the 1950s with nothing new."

"We need strong policies in the field of environment, tax,
industry and research and development."

With an election on April 13-14, Legambiente will be
pushing candidates to put the environment at the top of the
agenda.

Cogliati Dezza said that, on balance, the center-left
government of Romano Prodi which collapsed in January had been
better for the environment than its predecessor, headed by
Silvio Berlusconi, as it had started promoting renewables.

With both left and right making the economy the main theme
at the start of their electoral campaigns, Legambiente is
pushing them to link promised reduction in labor tax to
increased tax on polluting forms of energy.